Before practice, Evans broke down the video of Saturday's 71-68 loss at San Diego for the team. The Dons led the game by nine points with 13 minutes remaining.

San Diego rallied and the score was close as time was expiring. Then, the team that has ranked near the bottom of the West Coast Conference in free- throw shooting showed why.

Dommanic Ingerson missed the front end of a two-shot foul with 1:08 remaining. Danny Cavic missed both of his shots with 44 seconds left.

To make matters worse, the Dons were down by one when Armondo Surratt was called for a charge with eight seconds to go. Nir Cohen did what the Dons have found so difficult: He made both shots with six seconds remaining to give the Toreros their three-point margin.

"We've just got to step up to the free-throw line with confidence," Evans said. "You've got to knock them down, especially during crunch time."

The Dons came into the game ranked seventh in the conference in free-throw shooting (66.6 percent).

"We talked all week about needing to shoot about 75 percent on the road," Evans said.

Instead the Dons were 15-for-25 (60 percent).

"If we make three or four of those missed 10 ..." Evans said, his voice trailing off.

Saturday's game broke a tie for third place in the conference, with San Diego (16-7, 6-4) taking sole possession.

USF (9-14, 5-5) quickly gets another chance. The Dons host the Toreros tonight because of a quirk in the schedule in a quick turnaround between opponents playing unusually late in the conference schedule.

Evans said he learned some things in Saturday's game -- things he can try against San Diego, as well as seeing some encouraging signs in his team.

"Our man-to-man defense got better," he said,. "and we were more complete as a team."

Evans said of the more than 50 possessions in the game, the Dons "played well in three-quarters of those possessions."

The Dons have four games remaining, two of them on the road, including the regular- season finale against Gonzaga.

The WCC tournament begins March 3 at Gonzaga's new McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane. The third- and fourth-place teams receive a bye in the first round and the first- and second-place teams have byes the first two rounds.